[Beauty] [Fashion] [Lifestyle]

The Body Shop event, Belfast

﻿Hey,

So a few weeks ago I got a golden ticket invite to The Body Shop store in Belfast’s city centre for an evening of fun with the staff and lots of other local NI bloggers!

I have always been a fan of the Body Shop. To me it’s a cult brand that I have been familiar with since my early childhood. When I was really little my mum used to use the body shop strawberry perfume oil on me and I thought I was great for wearing ‘perfume’ haha!

It looked like this is any of your remember it! #MajorThrowback

Since then The Body Shop is the kind of place I pop into every now and again when I fancy a treat and I always go in at Christmas! I love to get lots of little stocking fillers and it’s traditional that I buy my mum their strawberry Christmas set! She would be very sad if she didn’t get one!

Lately the body shop has become so much more than just a skincare haven but they have also launched a makeup range which until the event I had never tried!

The lovely Paige from the Belfast store gave me a quick consultation and I decided I would like to try the new Matte clay clarifying foundation. This foundation is full coverage which is my number one requirement (stupid acne!), 100% vegan and contains tea tree oil to purify the skin. It’s always a bonus to find makeup that is actually benefiting your skin while you wear it!

Paige colour matched me to ‘bamboo 023’ and it applied like a dream. As Paige built up the coverage I could smell the tea tree oil which I quite like as it smells a bit like a facial in a tube! This foundation comes in a handy squeezy tube and instantly it reminded me of the L’Oréal infallible matte foundation which is a firm favourite of mine and very much rivals my Estée Lauder double wear! So of course this made me even more interested in finding out how good this foundation really was! I was really pleased with the look and finish of the foundation after it was applied. It definitely gives a matte finish however the only thing I will say is it feels chalky (I guess that’s the clay) to touch once on your face. It’s not a criticism really, just a bit unusual, I guess? However it makes your skin feel incredibly soft! But I did notice a chalky residue on my fingers after touching my face initially. Maybe a fixing spray would eliminate this?!

An after shot of the Matte clay clarifying foundation application
I would agree the foundation is definitely full coverage but don’t think it’s necessarily 24hr….though what is? I wear it daily to work and have found my acne to have improved since I have started to use it. I can’t say that it’s solely the result of using this foundation but I guess it’s got to be helping! This foundation is priced at £10 which I think is really reasonable, a definite repurchase for me!

Jake who works in the body shop in Belfast gave us some great information about the body shop itself, their cruelty free status and also a bit of an insight into some of their new products, namely the Japanese Matcha Tea pollution clearing mask.

We got to pass the mask (£17) around to have a closer look. The smell of Matcha was evident! I wasn’t sure about the scent at the time but it’s really not that strong when you apply it, I promise! It looked like it would be good for you; if that makes sense? I could see little exfoliating elements in the mask and the green colour just LOOKED healthy! Matcha is everywhere at the minute and part of me wondered was this just another addition to the trend but once home and able to try the mask for myself I could see there is a lot more to this mask than simply a ‘fad’. In honesty before trying the mask for myself, I had heard mixed reviews from other bloggers. But I have to say I loved my Matcha mask experience! My initial reaction was that the mask tingled…a lot! To the point where I wondered if I was having an allergic reaction! 😂 After a few minutes this feeling subsided and the mask simply felt cooling and really quite nice! To remove the mask I used warm water and circular motions to allow the particles to exfoliate my face and honestly my skin felt amazing after! So soft and, well, cleaner! The mask claims to help remove pollutants and impurities and it certainly felt like it did! Great for any city dwellers like myself!

I can’t thank the body shop enough for a great event! I love the mask we were gifted with and will certainly be using it as part of my skincare routine! The foundation I purchased on the night is another winner and we got a lovely free shower gel with purchase at the event so thanks for that too (I have been using it in the shower every morning!) I of course couldn’t leave without repurchasing the strawberry body butter for my mum, I have lost count of how many she has gone through over the years, a definite sign of a quality product. Thanks body shop, I will be back very soon!